Duncan Earleunder the assumption, often correct, that we knew something about
medicine. But this man was different. He knew who I was. He was in
the vast compadre matrix, that spiderweb of initiates and their fam-
ilies who spoke with the World, who counted the days. He was ask-
ing for spiritual assistance for a medical case. Now what?
Yellowing HarvestOff to the hut at a trot, forcing myself out of my thoughts into action,
out of the shadows of participating to observe, to observation in par-
ticipation. I was the ayudante, the apprentice of a known healer–di-
viner, and this was an urgent matter. As I approached the last rise to
the house, I was already taking charge, sending children out for herbs,
instructing neighbors to pool offerings, erecting an altar, and checking
on the girl. Who has argued with this one? I asked plaintively, who
has forgotten her permissions? What ancestor may be livid? What do
you have to pay up? She had a fever, not too high but there. Pericón,
tagetes lucida, relative of the marigold, an old Popol Vuh incense of-
fering that cuts fever gently. I knew this because I had been thus cured
when I had what this girl looked to have, an illness owned in the Xi-
balbaj underworld. I was also conversant with the illness in the med-
ical literature and knew the best thing was good food, rest, lots of
pericón tea, and attention by her family. There are no medications
for food-borne hepatitis, once it shows in the eyes. I took note of the
day, Home, heading for the Holy Earth day, interrogated family about
any past failures to ask for thanks for issues of the household from
the World. Another house was being built close by, and there had not
been a proper ceremony of permission. This would have to be recti-
fied, I knew the rite, I was completely engaged in it, I had taken on old
Lucas persona for a spell, to do the healing, render a cure.
Pay DayThe beans revisited the house, someone was angry, conflict with an-
cestors, a permission missed. A cross word to the sickly child had to
be forgiven, with penitence before the altar, back and forth on the